Senate to vote Thursday on Sandy aid

Dec. 22, 2012

Written by

Brian Tumulty

Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The Senate is expected to pass a $60.4 billion emergency aid package for victims of superstorm Sandy on Thursday, senators from New York and New Jersey said Friday.

The announcement came moments after the Senate voted 91-1 to overcome a GOP filibuster holding up action on the storm aid, with only Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona voting no. Seven other senators — all Republicans — missed the vote.

House lawmakers could take up the package as early as Friday, if Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, calls them back into session.

Republicans and Democrats have agreed on 21 amendments that will be considered Thursday during a one-day vote-a-rama that will conclude with final passage.

“The aid bill, after much fighting back and forth in the Senate, will pass the Senate virtually unscathed,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., predicted.

Schumer said that if any amendments are passed, “none of them will get at the core.”

Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey agreed, saying the final bill will be a “robust package.”

He said Friday’s 91-1 vote was the Senate’s way of telling Sandy victims, “we are on our way to helping you, lift you up, reopen your businesses, get you back in your homes and rebuild your communities.”

Senate debate on the storm aid legislation has competed over the past five days with farewell speeches by departing lawmakers and eulogies for Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, who died Monday.

New York and New Jersey lawmakers said they worked behind the scenes with the governors of both states to erase Republican opposition to the aid package.

The breakthrough, Schumer said, was an agreement with Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee that the GOP would not filibuster the bill if Democrats allowed them floor votes on amendments.

One amendment authored by Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana would cut immediate aid to $24 billion and defer the remainder of the requested funds to the next Congress.

Six amendments were authored by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. One seeks local cost-sharing on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects. Another would remove certain proposals for studies.

Democratic amendments include one by Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont for spending on overseas embassy security.

One setback Friday came when Democrats fell three votes short of the 60 votes they needed to avoid what Schumer said was a requirement to offset some of the storm aid by cutting $3.4 billion from the 2014 budget.